Professor Olivers
January 07, 2015 10:00 PM
Flying Lessons by Professor Olivers
With her clipboard in hand, Florence watched as her younger students filed onto the Quidditch pitch. For some, this might be their first flying lesson ever; for others, it would be a nice way to practice before Quidditch tryouts. Florence hoped that the first-years would decide to join the sport and revive the teams in Crotalus and Teppenpaw particularly. It would be nice to have four houses competing for the Quidditch Cup again instead of just two. The class was geared towards first-years, but any second-years who hadn’t mastered flying with at least an E their first year were welcome. Flying was usually a pretty easy class, so she didn’t expect many of the second-years to join in.As Florence waited patiently, watching as the second-hand on her watch tick a minute past the designated time, she wondered when she had become more lenient with the first-years. She was a retired actress a couple years past fifty with no children, a deceased husband, and a boyfriend in Chicago. Her life had taken an odd turn once she had decided to teach at Sonora, but it had been a turn for the better. She still liked those punctual students much better and the seventh-years no doubt knew her as a strict professor, but at least for these flying lessons she didn’t have the heart to lock the first-years out of the Quidditch pitch. It was a big change from the stickler she’d been before.
She had come in as a Charms professor, but Florence had grown comfortable on the grassy pitch. It was a nice day for flying: warm and slightly cloudy. It almost made her want to get on a broom and fly around herself. After a couple of minutes passed, she cleared her throat and smiled at her students. “Over here, everyone,” she said, directing them over to the pile of school brooms. If they had a broom from home, they were allowed to use them during Quidditch matches, but for this flying lesson she wanted everyone to use a school broom.
“Good morning. Welcome to Flying Lessons. I am Professor Olivers, but you can call me Coach Olivers if you prefer. I am the Charms professor here at Sonora, but I am also the current stand-in Quidditch coach. Flying lessons are required for all first-years, but for those who already know how to fly there are other options. However, for this class period all students must be on a broom. Every lesson will begin with roll call and then the more experienced flyers can break off to either play informal scrimmages, toss a Quaffle around, or fly laps around the pitch. As long as you do not disturb the lesson or hurt yourselves or each other, you are free to do what you like within reason. I will not bring out a Snitch or the Bludgers, so don’t ask.
“Before I let you go, I’m going to take roll first. Please answer when I call your name.” She made her way through the list briskly before letting the experienced flyers go to the other end of the pitch with a school broom. They had to be close enough for Florence to keep an eye on them, but far enough that they wouldn’t disturb the beginners. Once the group had split, Florence turned her attention to the new flyers.
“Everyone, please grab a broom to begin with and put it down on the ground next to you.” She waited until the students each had a broom and directed them to put it on the side of their dominant hand. “Now, hold your wand hand out—that’s your dominant hand—and say, Up!” The broom she had by her side leaped into her hand. “The trick is to be firm when commanding your broom. Don’t be shy; be confident.” Confidence was the key to acting, her former occupation and passion. She had been a stage actress for twenty-three years, and some of what she had learned during that time bled into her teaching strategy. “Once your broom is in your hand, mount it either astride or side-saddle. Let me know if you want to ride side-saddle and I will adjust your brooms. Then simply kick off—not too hard—and let the broom take you a couple feet off the ground and no higher.”
OOC:
Welcome to Flying! By posting in this class, you will earn points for your house. There is a minimum of 200 words per post or three paragraphs, but the longer and more creative a post is, the more points you will receive. Points are awarded for how well you write, not how well your character does in a lesson. Keep your posts realistic, relevant to the lesson as much as possible, and creative!
If you have any questions, tag Professor Olivers on the OOC board or check the FAQ.
Florence will be present and will stop any situation before it gets out of hand. Make sure you don’t write for other characters without their permission. However, if your character wants to ride side-saddle, you can safely assume Prof. Olivers adjusted their brooms. Otherwise, have fun with your posts!
Subthreads: No lesson necessary. by John Spencer with Barnaby Pye
Learning to fly! by Anna Clarissa Cooper-Flemming with Lauren Song, Teppenpaw, Anna Clarissa
Neither one thing nor the other by Jemima Wolseithcrafte, Teppenpaw with Owen Brockert, Teppenpaw
I fly something old by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw with Sutton Nicolls, Pecari
Never again. by Aislinn Nicolls, Aladren
0
Professor Olivers
Flying Lessons
0
Professor Olivers
1
5
Anna Clarissa Cooper-Flemming
January 09, 2015 9:26 AM
Learning to fly! by Anna Clarissa Cooper-Flemming
Anna Clarissa was wearing her school robes like she'd been told to (which was weird because it made her feel like some private school kid - which she kind of was, she supposed) and had gotten to flying lessons five minutes before on time, which was long enough to get a good feel for their professor. She seemed pretty nice and she was holding a clipboard, which was pretty par for the course in terms of P.E. teachers that Anna Clarissa had. In elementary school one time she'd won their end of the year push-up contest and gotten a squishy stuffed fish as a prize, but in general P.E. was one of those classes that Anna Clarissa didn't have many feelings about. She got to run around which was fun but sometimes they did boring fitness tests and not anything else.However, since she was now in magical school, the curly haired Pecari had high hopes for P.E., if only because it meant she was going to learn to fly a broom. Anna Clarissa had learned how witches got warts (toads, so she knew to avoid them) and about the different options for familiars (toads were also on there) and how to buy a wand (it was a lot like trying on sneakers) and now she was going to learn another important witch skill: flying. She was pretty pumped.
"Here!" she piped up, when Coach Olivers called her name.
The kids who already knew how to fly went off to do their own thing and Anna Clarissa nodded. She hadn't been here for very long yet, but it was already pretty clear that there was some sort of divide between the kids who'd grown up magic and the kids who hadn't, at least among the first years. She was hoping that once they all started learning magic things would even out.
Then it was time for Anna Clarissa herself to learn how to fly. She picked up a broom when the Coach told her too (the handle was dark and a little bit warped on one end but otherwise it seemed like, well, an old-fashioned broom). Then, she put it on the ground next to her above her left hand.
"Up," she commanded. The broom rolled over in the grass but didn't up. Anna Clarissa frowned. "UP," she directed, more forcefully. The broom didn't even move that time and the hazel-eyed girl determined that yelling wasn't going to get her anywhere. She thought for a second and tried a different tactic. "Up." Anna Clarissa said again, this time in the tone of voice that she would use to order the family's dog off the couch (but only if mom was watching; clandestine couch-cuddling with the dog was pretty okay in Anna Clarissa's book).
It worked! The broom shot up into her hand and the Pecari grinned, then slid her left leg over the handle and kicked off, adjusting things until she was about four feet off the ground.
"Hey wow nifty!" she exclaimed, looking around.
0
Anna Clarissa Cooper-Flemming
Learning to fly!
0
Anna Clarissa Cooper-Flemming
0
5
Lauren Song, Teppenpaw
January 20, 2015 9:50 PM
Me too! by Lauren Song, Teppenpaw
Lauren was a little nervous about flying lessons. She knew what a broom looked like and had watched a couple of Quidditch games with her brother when their uncle happened to get free tickets. But besides all that, Lauren had never actually handled a broom by herself. Or at all. She never liked looking foolish especially in front of people she didn't know. Using a wand was okay in her book because her body wasn't physically moving around, but flying was a whole other thing. She would have to somehow get into the air and not fall back down. Brooms meant balance, and the only balance Lauren had ever needed was on a bicycle. She hoped that would help.Coach Olivers was also the Charms teacher, and Lauren wondered briefly if she had ever played Quidditch herself. Maybe Coach Olivers had been on a professional Quidditch team before being a Charms professor. The professors here had to have had some kind of cool job before deciding to teach for the rest of their lives. Teaching was a little boring in Lauren's point of view, but she didn't know much about it. When Coach Olivers called her name, she said, "Here!" in a voice quieter than usual. Being at a magical school was a little intimidating. Though Lauren had grown up with magic in her household, her mom had wanted to raise her and her siblings in a muggle environment. That meant going to elementary school with kids she couldn't tell about magic. Here, it was different. Everyone was in on the secret and Lauren liked the environment a lot more, though now she didn't feel as special.
It was time to get an actual broom, and the Korean-American witch picked one up with the rest of her classmates. It was a little heavier than she had imagined, but really cool-looking. She'd never been interested to hold an actual broom, but here she was with one in her hand. She put it down on the ground and watched as Coach Olivers put it down and commanded it into her hand.
Well that was intimidating.
Lauren looked down at the lifeless broom on the ground next to her. She put her hand over it, imagining some kind of power emanating from her hand. "Up," she said, using her don't-mess-with-me voice that only came out when she was telling her siblings what to do or teaching her dog to do a trick. She was surprised by the broom slapping itself into her hand at the blink of an eye. "Whoa," she said, teetering slightly at the force of it. She smiled a little to herself and sat on it. She kicked off gently, and the broom actually moved! Lauren felt like a natural flyer; maybe in some past life she had been an avid Quidditch player.
There was a curly-haired girl who looked fascinated by all of this, and Lauren tried to figure out how to push her broom forward to catch up to her. Maybe the other girl could be a potential friend; while Lauren liked her roommates, it would be good to get to know other classmates. She moved her hips forward, but that didn't seem to do anything. So she kicked the ground a little harder as she leaned forward, and the broom suddenly shot forward.
A muted scream escaped her, and Lauren pulled the broom back so hard she almost flipped over. She fell off the broom and crashed to the ground. Luckily she'd only been a few inches off the ground, but it was still embarrassing. And it hurt. Lauren sat up and brushed the grass off her uniform. There would definitely be grass stains that she would have to rub out somehow and probably a bruise on her hip. Lauren wondered if the other girl had seen everything, and the thought made her want to cover her face. How embarrassing.
0
Lauren Song, Teppenpaw
Me too!
0
Lauren Song, Teppenpaw
0
5
Anna Clarissa
January 22, 2015 9:18 AM
Need some help there? by Anna Clarissa
There was a noise like something in distress, and Anna Clarissa turned her head around, searching for whatever had made the noise. She must have shifted a little bit too, because the broom kind of moved with her a little bit. The movement had unsettled her balance a little bit, so the curly-haired Pecari took a second to move around a little bit so she wouldn't fall off and hurt herself. It wouldn't be a bad fall - she'd had worse from the monkey bars on the jungle gym by her cousin's house - but in general, Anna Clarissa felt as though falling was to be avoided.Apparently not everyone thought that way though, because there was another girl currently on the ground brushing herself off in such a way that indicated she had not been on the ground previously. Suddenly, Anna Clarissa understood why the coach hadn't wanted them to go up very high. If they had, she could see how they could get very seriously hurt. And if someone fell down and broke their arm, how would they use their wand? Were wands okay with being used in both of your hands? Maybe some of them were but some of them weren't, like ambidexterous wands. The first year had tried to learn to be ambidexterous in fourth grade but had quickly gotten bored.
"Hey wow are you doing okay?" Anna Clarissa called from her broom, suddenly realizing she had no idea how to get it down. She nudged it a little bit and instead of going down it went to the side. Well, there was only one thing to do then.
Anna Clarissa maneuvered herself in such a way that she was able to slip off the broom while keeping her hands on the stick part. She looked down - her feet weren't quite touching the ground, but it wasn't that far away. The Pecari let go, and in turn the broom fell to the ground and made a satisfactory thumping noise. Anna Clarissa walked over to her new friend and brushed an extra blade of grass off the other girl's robe. "You wanna be careful with brooms," the Pecari said confidently. "They're ornery." A word she had picked up from her roommate Izzy.
0
Anna Clarissa
Need some help there?
0
Anna Clarissa
0
5